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Welsh Kite Trust
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NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
An encouraging increase this year with 61 pulli fledging from 27 successful nests (55 ringed and tagged from 25 nests). Brood sizes were; 4 x 1, 12 x 2 and 11 x 3. Ten additional nests failed completely and four infertile eggs were collected for analysis.
No expansion of breeding range was noted, and much suitable woodland in the core area remains unoccupied by nesting kites, so the potential for population growth is excellent.
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Beyond the Northamptonshire border to the north and east, nests were again located in Rutland and Cambridgeshire. For the fourth successive year, and of great concern, nesting failure was noted west of Corby, where a different pair of two-year-olds has attempted to breed each year.
Once again female Red 1 featured on the video link to Forest Enterprise's Top Lodge Visitor Centre at Fineshade near Stamford. She was released in 1997, and lost one tag in July 2004. A violent attack on the nest was recorded when the chicks were a few days old. A Buzzard appears suddenly on screen, with the male kite clinging to its' back, and thrusts out a foot in a determined attempt to seize a chick from beneath the defending female. The two locked birds then fall from view. In real time the attack itself, visible on screen, lasted less than a second.
Dispersal was rapid in the case of juvenile White/Yellow 53, photographed by Gerry Whitlow in the Chilterns on 17 August 2004.
An emigrant from Northampton, White/White "Chequered Flag" - see BODA WENNOL Issue 14 Autumn 2004 p7 and Issue 15 Spring 2004 p5 - which spent much time in the vicinity of two feeding stations, one in Powys and one in Ceredigion , was reported on 3 August 2004 as 'found dead about two weeks ago' in the Peak District, west of Sheffield.
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Last recorded in Wales at the end of February 2004, it is tempting to speculate whether it had been recruited to the breeding population either in Wales or Yorkshire before perishing. This bird carried a transmitter, but despite a search kindly undertaken by Doug Simpson from the Yorkshire project, the carcass was not located.
Tagged kites from other populations are seen annually. In the last year two from the Chilterns, two from Yorkshire, one from Scotland and our first from Wales, Black t (GN54187) have been recorded in Northamptonshire.
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Red Kites Update: |
| Wales |
| Chilterns 2004 |
| Yorkshire04 |
| Northamptonshire |
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Northen Scotland04
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Central Scotland04
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| Welsh Kite Trust index |
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